Day 7 of Christmas- NAC for COPD.

Welcome to the Twelve Trials of Christmas series on EMinFocus! This is the seventh of twelve posts in a series where I ramble on various topics for which I would love to see an EM study done. I’ve taken morsels of prior studies (case series, small trials, etc) and highlight reasons on why I believe this study would benefit EM. Some may pan out, some may not. All of them I would be highly interested in assisting with in any way possible to continue to advance our fine specialty.

Given the above, a trial of NAC in the ED may provide some benefit in helping patients get over the initial hump, and perhaps, lead to an early discharge. (Perhaps akin to early systemic steroids in addition to the patients inhaled steroid regimen during exacerbations). At the least, it may cause pulmonology to reconsider giving NAC to their patients on the outside world and help it come standard of care.